I don’t know what’s up with the new love affair between tech-heavy Wired magazine and RVs. Wired has been offering a lot of camping coverage lately. I guess our humble RV blog covers tech from time-to-time, so turnabout’s fair play. Anyway, the following Wired blog article addresses some of the recent developments in the RV industry, as well as some new products that are on the market.
WIRED BLOG TALKS RV SALES AND CHOICES
With regard to “recent industry developments,” it’s safe to say that this was a rough year for RV-ing. I’ve heard a few different statistics (and we all know what Mark Twain said about stats), but whether sales are down 27%, 53%, or some other mystery percentage — they are down, BIG TIME. To put RV sales in visual terms, I’m picturing that old “agony of defeat” ski jump disaster that once opened ABC’s Wide World of Sports. (We’re showing our age now, kids.)
What does this mean for you, the humble RV shopper? I will reiterate the old Warren Buffet advice about being fearless when others are quaking in their hiking boots.
If you are serious about getting into the RV lifestyle, 2009 looms as the greatest RV buying opportunity since the days when Led Zeppelin topped the Billboard charts. Dealers will be considering all reasonable (and probably a few unreasonable) offers on those rigs that have been gathering dust and taking up space this year.
The only catch is financing, in that it remains hard to secure. Many would be RV purchasers are being denied credit, simply because the standards for approval have been raised to an absurdly high level. But one suspects the credit and financing issues will ease as we enter the new year, and all those banks start having fun with all that Federal bailout moula.